Basic Training

Basic Training

My husband was in the US Army back in the 90’s. Every person that signs up to enlist in the armed forces has one basic purpose to defend their country against all enemies at all cost. Each person must then go through Basic Training which pushes them to their limits but prepares them to do their job to defend their country. Once completing basic training they then go to Advanced Individual Training (AIT) which further prepares them for their individual purpose, Medic, Ranger, Combat soldier, Tanker, Communications specialist, and the list goes on.

You may be the very best Medic that you can be but if you haven’t gone through Basic then you won’t be able to fulfill your first commitment as being a Soldier. He and I were talking and he said God revealed to him that we as Christians have enlisted in God’s army but so many people just sign the papers, they don’t go through Basic training to know what their purpose as a soldier really is. Jesus gave us His marching orders in Matthew 28: 19-20 where we are to go into all the world and make disciples of every nation, teaching them all He taught us and baptizing them.

You see we are all recruiting agents for God’s army! Then once we have that down then He gives us an individual purpose which would be like our AIT, teachers, parents, preachers, using our unique gifts and talents to glorify Him. So many times we as Christians just want to sign the enlistment papers and not go through Basic or AIT. We want the benefits of belonging to God’s army without any of the training exercises or personal sacrifice.

There are too many people today who have “signed the papers but never completed the training or fulfilled their corporate or individual purpose in God’s Services.” We need to make sure that everyone gets the basics, what the Bible says about Who God is and what it says about who we are IN Christ. Everyone doesn’t have to be a General or perform great and mighty things but everyone does have a purpose to be obedient to what God has called them to do, spread the gospel and live a life pleasing to God.